Unit Procedure
Title
School of Law: Faculty Responsibilities, Governance, and Meetings Procedures
Introduction
Purpose
This policy document describes the core responsibilities of the full-time faculty at the University of North Carolina School of Law and establishes procedures for faculty governance and faculty meetings. It also sets rules for voting, notice, quorum, and faculty recommendations related to appointment, reappointment, promotion, and tenure.
Scope
This policy document applies to the full-time faculty of the University of North Carolina School of Law, especially those eligible to participate in faculty governance and vote on faculty matters.
Procedure
A. Core Faculty Responsibilities.
B. Faculty Governance.
C. General Rules for Faculty Meetings.
- General Deadlines for Notice and Supporting Materials.
- No Formal Quorum Generally Required.
- Robert’s Rules of Order as Default Rules of Procedure and Open Voting.
- Presence Required for Voting: Defined.
- General Eligibility to Vote on Matters Other Than Appointment, Promotion, and Tenure.
- Faculty Recommendation for Appointment, Reappointment, Promotion, or Tenure.
- Notice of Tenure Meeting and Content of File.
A. Core Faculty Responsibilities
The core responsibilities of the full-time faculty, as a collective body, include:
- Teaching, which includes (a) preparing for classes, being available for student consultation about those classes, assessing student performance in those classes, and remaining current in the subjects being taught; and (b) participating in academic advising, creating an atmosphere in which students and faculty may voice opinions and exchange ideas, and assessing student learning at the law school generally.
- Engaging in scholarship, as defined by the law school.
- Service to (a) the law school and university community, including participation in the governance of the law school, curriculum development, and other institutional responsibilities described in the Standards; (b) the profession, including working with judges and practicing lawyers to improve the profession; and (c) the public, including participation in pro bono activities.
B. Faculty Governance
The full-time faculty also has responsibility for establishing policies, procedures, and standards governing basic operation of the School of Law. The full-time faculty works primarily through committees appointed by the Dean. The number of special committees varies in any given year. Faculty committees generally initiate action by reporting and recommending action to the full faculty.
Secondarily, the full-time faculty governs through meetings, which generally occur monthly September through May. The Dean may call for additional meetings as needed.
Minutes from faculty meetings are available on the law school’s intranet. Older minutes are archived in the Dean’s Suite.
C. General Rules for Faculty Meetings
These general rules govern except where other procedures prescribe more specific rules, for example regarding appointment, reappointment, promotion, or tenure.
1. General Deadlines for Notice and Supporting Materials
Agendas announcing action items are to be distributed at least 48 hours before a faculty meeting. Generally, committee reports or other documents supporting the action items should be distributed or made available on the same schedule. Objection may be made to faculty consideration of any matter (1) that does not comply with the provision for 48 hours of notice and/or availability of materials or (2) for which the faculty more generally may have lacked meaningful notice and opportunity to consider the matter. An objection to lack of proper notice of an action item or of adequate supporting materials may be made before or at the meeting.
When a proper objection is lodged based upon lack of notice, waiver by a majority of faculty members entitled to vote on the issue is required.
When an objection is lodged based on adequacy of supporting materials, waiver by a majority of those entitled to vote on the issue and actually present is required.
2. No Formal Quorum Generally Required
Formal quorum rules do not generally apply to faculty meetings. However, as to all matters involving appointment, reappointment, tenure, and promotion, a quorum consisting of a majority of those eligible to vote on the issue is required at the time the vote is taken. Faculty members who are on leave are entitled to attend, participate, and vote, but unless such faculty members are in attendance, they are not included in the total eligible to vote for purpose of determining a quorum. In situations where formal quorum rules do not apply, the Dean may defer a vote if he or she determines that an insufficient number of voting participants is present.
3. Robert’s Rules of Order as Default Rules of Procedure and Open Voting
In the absence of specific or contrary rules, Robert’s Rules of Order shall apply to matters of procedure.
Votes on appointment, reappointment, promotion, or tenure matters are by secret ballot. Votes on all other matters are by show of hands, absent specific provisions in this manual, University policies, or a vote of the faculty to vote by other means.
4. Presence Required for Voting: Defined
Only those faculty members present at a time the vote is taken may cast a vote. Proxy voting is prohibited. Participation other than in person is discouraged because of the almost inevitable negative impact it has on discussion and debate, but such participation, typically by telephonic link, is permitted for those unavoidably away from the Law School building at the time of the faculty meeting for reasons of professional travel, ill health, family obligations, etc. When faculty members have otherwise substantially participated in deliberations on the matter during a faculty meeting, votes may be received from those whose presence is established by telephone or other medium that permits two-way simultaneous participation. For practical reasons, telephonic votes cannot be received by a fully secret ballot since the recipient will know the vote, but insofar as possible the secrecy of the vote will be maintained by direct communication to the Dean or a designate.
5. General Eligibility to Vote on Matters Other Than Appointment, Promotion, and Tenure
Tenured, tenure-track, instructional clinical faculty, library clinical faculty, and others granted similar status shall be entitled to vote on all matters except those matters relating to the appointment, retention, promotion or tenure of faculty members, which are governed by specific rules of voting eligibility. Except as controlled by state law regarding open meetings, only those eligible to vote on matters under consideration are entitled to be present at faculty meetings. Others may be present for clerical purposes or with the approval of the Dean where their presence and/or participation would be helpful for consideration of the business at hand.
6. Faculty Recommendation for Appointment, Reappointment, Promotion, or Tenure
The final decision on whether to recommend a candidate for appointment, promotion, or tenure rests with the Dean. Under long-standing practice, the Dean of the Law School does not recommend a candidate for appointment, promotion, or tenure when such action is opposed by a “substantial minority” of the eligible faculty voting on the decision.
The sense of the faculty is that the opposition by 1/3 or more of those eligible and voting constitutions a “substantial minority” and therefore should presumptively be considered by the Dean as a negative vote of the faculty on the candidate. The sense of the faculty is that opposition by 1/5 or fewer of those eligible and voting does not constitute substantial opposition and therefore should presumptively be considered by the Dean as a positive vote of the faculty on the candidate. When the vote falls between those two points, any faculty member who wishes to change his or her vote may call for reconsideration of the vote. The weight to be accorded a vote falling between 1/3 and 1/5, and whether it is sufficiently substantial to be considered a negative vote or insubstantial and therefore a positive vote of the faculty, rests with the Dean.
See the “Reports, Recommendations, and Votes” segment of the Reappointment, Promotion, and Tenure Policy, which encompasses the language above and adds that “The Dean will forward his or her recommendation to the university in accordance with university policy.”
7. Notice of Tenure Meeting and Content of File
The Promotion and Tenure Committee shall provide to the faculty or make available for inspection in the Dean’s office or other designated place a report evaluating a candidate for tenure along with other appropriate information at least one week prior to the meeting of the faculty at which such recommendation shall be considered. The file shall include at least the committee report, external and any internal letters of evaluations, the list of major pieces of scholarship either available in hard copy or with links to electronic copies, and evaluations of teaching. A vote on the tenure of a candidate shall normally be taken during the meetings called to consider the candidate.
See the “Reports, Recommendations, and Votes” segment of the Reappointment, Promotion, and Tenure Policy for additional requirements.
(Adopted: October 2010, December 2010; amended August 2021; updated September 2024)
Contact Information
Primary Contact
Name: F. Andrew Hessick, Dean
Email: law_dean@unc.edu